Ken Gourlay is a very experienced dance teacher and caller (a caller
"calls" the dance steps at the same time as the music the first few times
through the dance). He usually dances the couple dances with someone from the audience.

He has called at more than a 1000 21sts, weddings, birthday parties, student ceilidhs,
sports clubs etc

(Average size audiences in brackets)

He has been the organiser and caller for the last 5 years at monthly public ceilidhs at
the Assembly Rooms, Queens Hall and Lauriston Hall in Edinburgh
(120-400)

He was the caller at the Hogmanay ceilidh for the last 2 years at Queen's Hall
in Edinburgh (250)

He speaks French and enough German, Italian and Spanish to teach dances

Ken thinks dancing should be fun and is part of the joie
de vivre - up there with food, drink and sex. Dancing is good for you physically,
mentally and emotionally. He has no problem with people who don't know any Scottish
dances. On average half the people who come to our public ceilidhs in the Assembly
Rooms, Queen's Hall and Lauriston Hall have never been to a ceilidh before. At events
abroad usually very few have done any Scottish dancing before. Most join in, learn the
dances quickly and enjoy themselves.

e-book
Ken has written a book titled Kinytre Summersabout his
summer holidays as a boy on the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland. The second last
chapter explains how he became interested in the ceilidh scene.

If you have an Amazon Kindle or iPhone / iPad with the Kindle app you can sample the
beginning of this book for free at the Amazon
Kindle Bookstore. If you like it you can buy the e-book for 3.44 dollars (2.16
pounds).